1st Gen MacBook problems, won't wake—RESOLVED

[lord patton]

I've had some problems with my wife's MacBook. It is a 1st gen Core Duo 1.83 Combo. It was purchased from the Apple refurb store December 2006, and its serial number indicates it was manufactured in the last week or so before they upgraded the line to C2D.

Over the past few months, the MB won't wake from sleep. Mostly this happens when the lid is shut, but sometimes happens when the lid is up, too. Recently, this behavior occurs several times a week.

Then the other day, after installing the latest security patch through Software Update, her MacBook would not reboot—it got stuck on the grey screen with spinning thingy. I tried booting in safe mode and resetting the power management to no avail.

We made an appointment with a genius at the OakBrook Apple Store. He used disk utility to see that the HD was fine, then used Disk Warrior and found a few errors. Two of the errors were common, he said, but the third showed the desktop folder as being way too big. Archive and Install was not necessary, but he told us to do that if the behavior reoccured.

Which it did, so I performed an archive and install earlier today. And sure enough, once again, the MB failed to wake after sleep, and a hard reboot (remove power adapter and battery) was necessary.

So my question is: what now? call Applecare? Are there any other steps you would recommend?

 

[mad jew]

How much free space do you have on the thing? Have you tried resetting the SMC? Do you have any third party devices plugged into the machine?

 

[lord patton]

there had been 20 gigs of free space. Now, after the archive and install, it's down to 8 or 9 (out of 60).

Reset the SMC, that's when you press the power key for 5 secs with the battery out, yes? If so, that's what I did.

We're using a bluetooth mouse, but the problem existed before that. We have some printers and cameras we attach via USB, a firewire back-up drive.

Edit: The printers are a Epson all in one CX4800 and an HP Laserjet 1012.

 

[mad jew]

Yep, that's resetting the SMC. So, is it still not waking from sleep?

 

[lord patton]

Well, it didn't fix it before the archive and install. I'll try it again. It's an intermittent problem, though.

You asked about peripherals. I'm thinking maybe it only happens when one of the printers is hooked up. Is that possible?

Problem is the MB is my wife's, so I don't know all the details of its use.

btw, thanks.

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, it's possible this is being caused by a printer. Depending on how intermittent the problem is, disconnect a peripheral at a time and see if that stops the MacBook's sleepiness.

 

[lord patton]

well going through the permutations of printer 1 connected, printer 2 connected, and both printers connected didn't produce the aberrant behavior. But that's the joy of intermittent problems, yes?

I think I'll keep the printers disconnected when sleeping the MB, and see if it happens again... might be the easiest way to rule them out.

In the meantime, anything else to look into before calling Apple?

 

[mad jew]

It's less likely to be the source of your problem, but note what apps you're using before sleeping the machine.

 

[lord patton]

Thought I'd chime in again, so as to help others who might find this thread in a desperate search for help

It was the bluetooth mouse (Logitech V270). I turned off the "Allow bluetooth device to wake this computer" setting under the "bluetooth tab" in the "keyboard and mouse" section of system preferences. The problem hasn't recurred.

Funny thing is we had the problem even before we got the bluetooth mouse. It happened a lot more, though, once we did.

But it's all good, 'cause it never happens anymore, and we can wake the damn thing with the keyboard.

cheers.

 

[annk]

Thought I'd chime in again, so as to help others who might find this thread in a desperate search for help

It was the bluetooth mouse (Logitech V270). I turned off the "Allow bluetooth device to wake this computer" setting under the "bluetooth tab" in the "keyboard and mouse" section of system preferences. The problem hasn't recurred.

Funny thing is we had the problem even before we got the bluetooth mouse. It happened a lot more, though, once we did.

But it's all good, 'cause it never happens anymore, and we can wake the damn thing with the keyboard.

cheers.

Thanks for posting this, it makes it a lot easier for people who are looking for a solution in the future!